Admissions Question re "nearest school" criteria

[Howdoyousolve]

Hello,

Thanks in advance for any help, I'm struggling to find the answer to this online!

Most of the schools where I live prioritise children for whom it is their nearest school, this is a separate category above the general allocation by distance category.

The school we are closest to is ridiculously oversubscribed and we're not particularly close to it, but from a quirk of geography it's our nearest school. It's very likely that my child won't get into this school because there will be enough children for whom it is their nearest school who also live closer than us to fill all the spaces.

My question is, the second nearest school is much less oversubscribed and we have a better chance of getting in, but this school also prioritises children for whom it is their nearest school, and it's not our nearest school. If my child doesn't get a place at their nearest school through no fault of ours (i.e. we apply on time and list it first etc.), does the second nearest school then become our nearest school for admissions purposes? It seems very unfair if not as we could miss out on the nearest school because it's oversubscribed and then also miss out on the second nearest school because it's not our nearest.

I hope that makes sense, it's difficult to explain the issue which is why I've found it hard to Google the answer!

Thanks!

you can go back and see in previous years the distance of the last child accepted

do you know exact distance of your home (as the crow flies)?

LEA told me

The LA will publish the admissions results including distance to school for the furthest away child IF the school was oversubscribed that year. But that doesn't tell you which direction eg 900m north/south/east/west.

You'd have to check with the LA re how they define "nearest". We only have "distance" here for primary and it's as the crow flies. Then you'll be able to work out. Maybe "near" means walking distance/quickest journey - there are schools near me that I am well inside the "distance" category as the crow flies, but if they defined "nearest" by journey time I'd be well outside it.

Are the two schools on different LAs by any chance? Otherwise I can't think how you can be "near" one and not the other for admissions purposes.

It’s measured from you front door to the schools front door.

Ring the LA and ask the question.

You have to fit somewhere.

Basically - no. You can only have one "nearest school" under this criteria. If you don't get into that one, you won't fall under the "nearest school" criteria for the other one.

As others have said it's worth checking exactly how "nearest school" is defined. Normally it would be straight line distance from your home to a specified point in the school - might be the main entrance, might be the nearest entrance to you if they have more than one, might be a central point in the school.

Sorry I don't think I have explained it very well. Let's try again.

School A I'm 800m away from
School B I'm 950m away from

Both schools have in their admissions criteria:
1- children in care etc
2- siblings
3- children for whom it is their nearest school
4- other children by distance

Within category 3 the children are ranked by distance.

My child is unlikely to get into school A even though it is their nearest school because there are enough children in category three (it's their nearest school) who live closer to the school than we do to fill up all the spaces before us.

School B is less oversubscribed and if it was our nearest school we'd be sure of a place, but it's not.

If we don't get into School A then for admissions purposes is it removed from the calculations and School B becomes our nearest school? So our application would fall into category three? Or do the applications just stick to the fact that it's not our nearest school and our application to School B would be under category four? If our application was under category four then there's no guarantee we'd get a place and then we wouldn't have a space at either of the nearest schools and would presumably be pushed further away until we find a less popular school which isn't very close to us.

I hope that explains it a bit more!

If there are 7 categories and category 3 is 'nearest school' and category 4 is 'other children', you would be in category 3 for the first school you mentioned and category 4 for the other school you mentioned.

It is unfortunate that you're in the position you are in, but there is no way that school 2 will be considered your nearest school because school 1 doesn't have spaces, sorry.

Thanks I think this answers my question, although not the answer I wanted! I typed out the longer explanation before I saw this reply.

It just shows that when choosing houses you need to actually read the admissions criteria very carefully because we're really quite close to two very good schools but may not get a place in either and may get a place much further away.

Thanks! Yes it's an unfortunate position and I'm not a fan of the nearest school policy because surely there will always be children falling through the net and missing two or three of their nearest schools.

We have geographical areas and noone here goes to their geographical area school.
Its annoying as about 3 schools similar distance but we are 10min from school B with the geographical area kids about 30min away get priority. There arent even a single direct bus to school A.
And school A is the only one with free bus transport.
Frankly ripping residents here off as transport should be free due to distance.

Yes op its necessary to really check criteria.
But it can change too. Weve kived here over 20y and beofre loads of houses were built we had free choice of schools.

I think the birth rate is dropping so you may be ok...
Annoyingly my dc1 was in a much higher birthrate year

It’s measured from you front door to the schools front door.

That isn't necessarily true. A lot of LAs measure straight line distance by means of a Geographical Information System which measures distance from the unique reference point of the home address to that of the school. Saves all the argument about 'They must have used the wrong gate / door, because my DC wouldn't go in that way' etc.